Category Archives: workshops

A successful conference is the perpetual fork in the road. Which path (otherwise known as “track”) will you walk down? Because honestly — the entire program of State of the Map is amazing (otherwise known as “mouth-watering”).

In parallel to our regularly scheduled programming of such amazing talks (including yours truly!) on Friday we have the excitement of five minute lightning talks AND on Sunday we invite you to get your hands dirty in our workshop sessions.

Now most seriously, it is important to wash your hands before attending any State of the Map event so we don’t advise attending workshops unkempt. But if you are interested in trying on some of the newest development and contribution to OpenStreetMap we very much encourage you to come.

And get your silverware ready for a Workshops 15 course meal (that means there are 15 workshops!) starting at 10am and going until 5pm on Sunday. There will be Workshops in rooms QA and QC as well as Room 1 and Room 2, in Building D.

And if we don’t see you at those we will see you at the talks, otherwise know as the spoons and knives of the conference. Because the entire State of the Map program is designed to satisfy your your OpenStreetMap appetite. Come hungry!

Last December we had a hack weekend in London, thanks to AOL UK/MapQuest (my employer) for donating meeting space in their offices and food. About 20 people turned up and did some awesome stuff and we, at the Engineering Working Group, thought you might be interested in what went on and perhaps running your own event.

OSMers hacking away at the Hack Weekend in London, December 2013. Thanks to SK53_OSM via flickr for this photo under CC-BY-SA 2.0.

I was pleased to meet so many folks working at the city of Toronto and at the province of Ontario who showed so much interest in Open Data.Â There were many great conversations going on, from the exhibition floor at the city hall rotunda to the mixer at a local pub later.Â All of these are great signs of a new open-awareness at the city and I see it as overwhelmingly positive.

Being new to the world of Open, the city wanted some feedback regarding for what applications people would use this newly available data.Â As Toronto Transit Commission data, addressing data and road centrelines were all released I thought immediately of the travel planner for London from mySociety.

I had that chance to talk to many folks about OpenStreetMap through the course of the day and I was pleased to share my enthusiasm for a travel planner like this using the Toronto data.

The data we have now is imperfect but rather than critiquing the quality of the dance steps of this bear, let’s marvel that Toronto released open data at all.Â Most of the data sets grew up in separate silos in Toronto departments.Â The folks at the city are as new to these data sets from other departments as we are.Â They’ll get used to working with each other in an open environment and that will move them to more of the open tools, standards and practices that we take for granted.Â I’m sure we’ll see a bug tracker soon.Â We’ll see increased use of open formats rather than proprietary lowest-common-denominators.

Bravo, Mayor Miller, for recognizing the benefits of Open.Â Bravo, Mark Surman for challenging Toronto to become a city that thinks like the web,Â This is an important step along that way.

Sign up for the OSM-Foundation – The State of the Map is organized by volunteers the OpenStreetMap Foundation. By joining the OSM-Foundation you can show your support for the volunteers who make the State of the Map possible. Membership is only £15 per year.

What are the burning OpenStreetMap issues that you want to talk about?Â Have you been working on the next killer OpenStreetMap application?Â Have you been promoting mapping and opengeodata, holding mapping parties and tirelessly mapping in the sun, rain, wind and snow?

The call for papers for the third international StateoftheMap conference is now open.Â The OpenStreetMap Foundation invite contributions from mappers, geo-hackers and open geodata supporters around the world.Â If you are involved in OpenStreetMap mapping, coding or community organization – or if you want the chance to present your ideas or opinions to the OpenStreetMap community, you should submit a paper to the StateoftheMap 2009.

OpenStreetMap has come a long way in a very short space of time.Â With 100,000 contributors all around the world, OpenStreetMap has its future ahead.Â But there are also some big challenges ahead.Â How can OpenStreetMap continue to support new mappers around the world?Â How can the successes of mappers from well mapped countries be repeated in the unmapped world?Â What will a community of 1,000,000 mappers look like and what technical infrastructure needs to be put in place to support OSM’s growth?Â What are the new challenges that the OSM community must rise to in order to attract more mappers from diverse cultural backgrounds?Â What lessons can be learned from other open-source and open content communities who have made the transition from bedroom projects to world renowned successes?

New Mapping Frontiers – Expanding OSM into new communities, new regions and mapping new features with OSM

OSM started with some roads and footpaths in central London and now includes 1000s of different types of geodata around the world.Â As OSM continues its goal to provide a free map of the world, where will the line be drawn between “mappable” and “unmappable”.Â The third and fourth dimensions, indoor mapping and historic mapping are all there for the taking.Â What about aerial imagery?Â Will UAVs and community contributed aerial data provide detailed, open datasets?Â Is there really such a thing as “ground-truth”, or is all mapping subject to interpretation?Â What about subjective data: where do reviews, ratings and personal opinions fit in the OSM database?Â As OSM is taken up by new communities, what are the cultural barriers that need to be broken to make sure that new mapping frontiers are crossed?

OSM Application Development – Building applications that use the OSM APIs

OSM’s APIs provide a great base for all kinds of application development.Â What are the killer apps of 2009?Â Will this be the year of the OSM Mobile Editor?Â How can OSM’s trailblazing cartography continue to break new ground?Â What are the “enterprise” tools and services that are bring OSM maps to new users around the world?

Tools Tips and Techniques – Practical workshops that take a deep dive into a specific area of OSM

Are you power user of an OSM tool?Â If you’d like to share your expertise with OSM editors, cartography tools or OSM APIs, you can propose a session to host.Â Maybe you want to learn more about a particular area of OSM – if so you can also request a session to be given.

Session Formats

Talk – present your paper in either a 15 or 30 minute slot with time for questions afterwards

Discussion Sessions – Groups of 5 – 15 people hold an informal group discussion of a special interest topic

Lightening Talks – 5 minutes to say your piece.Â Sign up on the day

Workshops – 2 hour sessions that give OSMers the chance to take part in an in depth tutorial

The call for papers closes on the 3rd May 2009, so you have just over 6 weeks to get your abstracts in.Â A provisional program will be published in mid May 2009.

To submit your paper, follow this link.Â If you need any more information about submitting a session, contact Nick.

It was the first country to be completed in OpenStreetMap, its the home of TomTom, TeleAtlas, AND, a thriving OSM community and now its hosting the State of the Map.Â This July, Amsterdam will host the greatest gathering of OSMers the world has ever seen.Â The State of the Map 2009 will build upon the success of the last two events by adding a third day to the event.

Friday 10th July will be themed “OSM In Business” and will feature demos and presentations from some of the increasing number of commercial and governmental organisations who are using OSM.Â This will be a must-see event for any business or governmental organisation who are using OSM or are considering using it in the future.

Saturday 11th – Sunday 12th July will feature the winning formula of the last two years, with presentations, lightning talks and workshops from the OSM community.

We’ll be launching the SOTM website and the program of the Friday “Business Day” in early January.Â But don’t wait until then to book your flights.Â The dates are 100% confirmed, so book cheap flights now to avoid disappointment!

The call for papers will be announced in early 2009, with a range of themes and tracks, including “Hacking on OSM”, “OSM 2010”, “A freely mapped world” and “OSM in Business”.

Stay in Touch

Keep an eye on this blog for announcements whilst we’re putting together the SOTM website

Limerick is 25 km from Eire’s Shannon International Airport and it is a 30-minute journey to Limerick by connecting bus running every hour (timetable) throughout the day. If you are coming in from Shannon, Dublin or Cork airports and want or can offer a ride see our ride-sharing page.

The main venue has accommodation available for our special rate of ‚¬70 single and ‚¬100 for double/twin per night including breakfast – email gillian@kilmurrylodge.com and quote “Open Street Map” – or here are some lower cost options nearby. This WikiTravelWikiVoyage link also has more on bus, train and car hire plus other accommodation options and what to see.

The venue itself is The Kilmurry Lodge to the east of the town centre [map].

A great opportunity to meet your fellow mappers from all over the world.

The State of the Map 2008 international OpenStreetMap conference website and blog is now live and the call for participation/papers has gone out. Speaker slots are limited and like last year are bound to fill up quickly, so send us your abstracts!
The conference is being held at the Kilmurry Lodge Hotel in Limerick, Republic of Ireland on 12th and 13th July 2008.

July 12th-13th, 2008. Put that date in your diaries for next year’s State of the Map conference. The location? Well, that’s where you can help.

The OSMF has not yet settled on a location. It doesn’t have to be in the UK again – but it could be. It doesn’t have to be ‘terra incognita’ for OSM (not much mapping was done at Manchester) – but, again, it could be. But here’s what it does need to have:

Enthusiastic local OSMers who can help organise it, and who have good contacts with potential venue. Manchester worked so well because there were people on the ground prepared to put the hours in.

Good transport links. We want to encourage at least as good a turn- out as this year, hopefully better.

Like everything else in OSM, this is a call for volunteers – but the OpenStreetMap Foundation will, of course, pay reasonable expenses involved in arranging the venue. If you’re prepared to help OSM by putting the time in, you won’t be out of pocket.